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Concept
Coronal loop
Summary
In solar physics, a coronal loop is a well-defined arch-like structure in the Sun's atmosphere made up of relatively dense plasma confined and isolated from the surrounding medium by magnetic flux tubes. Coronal loops begin and end at two footpoints on the photosphere and project into the transition region and lower corona. They typically form and dissipate over periods of seconds to days and may span anywhere from in length.
Coronal loops are often associated with the strong magnetic fields located within active regions and sunspots. The number of coronal loops varies with the 11 year solar cycle.
Due to a natural process called the solar dynamo driven by heat produced in the Sun's core, convective motion of the electrically conductive plasma which makes up the Sun creates electric currents, which in turn create powerful magnetic fields in the Sun's interior. These magnetic fields are in the form of closed loops of magnetic flux, which are twisted and tangled by solar differential rotation (the different rotation rates of the plasma at different latitudes of the solar sphere). A coronal loop occurs when a curved arc of the magnetic field projects through the visible surface of the Sun, the photosphere, protruding into the solar atmosphere.
Within a coronal loop, the paths of the moving electrically charged particles which make up its plasma—electrons and ions—are sharply bent by the Lorentz force when moving transverse to the loop's magnetic field. As a result, they can only move freely parallel to the magnetic field lines, tending to spiral around these lines. Thus, the plasma within a coronal loop cannot escape sideways out of the loop and can only flow along its length. This is known as the frozen-in condition.
The strong interaction of the magnetic field with the dense plasma on and below the Sun's surface tends to tie the magnetic field lines to the motion of the Sun's plasma; thus, the two footpoints (the location where the loop enters the photosphere) are anchored to and rotate with the Sun's surface.
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